Robotic Nation Evidence

Taiwan firms to launch 2TB memory card

From the article:

The format will support up to 2TB of storage capacity within a 3.2 x 2.4 x 0.1cm card - the same size as a standard MMC unit. The new cards are said to be connector-compatible with the older format.

The new cards will have a data transfer rate of 120MBps, ten times that of SD memory cards. Like the Secure Digital format, µcard will support I/O devices, such as Bluetooth and 802.11 adaptors.

It is very rare today to find a personal computer with one terabyte of disk space. If it has it, it is made up of 4 to 10 drives and has an access rate of 30 or 40 MB/sec. The drive array takes up a cubic foot or more of space, consumes lots of electricity, generates lots of heat and weighs 20 pounds.

In 10 years, robots will be running around with two terabytes of memory that is 4 times faster, uses no power to speak of and fills a cubic centimeter of space. That's the effect of Moore's Law. See also:

• Keeping up with Moore's Law
• Moore's law and hard disks
• The effects of Moore's law

Another example of the same trend: Holographic discs look like DVDs but hold a terabyte of information. Today.